Self Love Starts From Kindness & Appreciation

In today’s day and age, self-love is extremely important. For most of us, it might sound like a luxury rather than a necessity. However, keeping in mind the fast-paced lives we’re all living, the need to express compassion towards ourselves has increased. Self-love or self-care isn’t just for someone with too much time on their hands. It’s something everybody should follow, and must become a lifestyle. Self-love starts with kindness and appreciation. If you constantly find yourself in a rat race of working too hard or are striving to achieve perfectionism, you need to be the first one to practice self-love.

Now that you know why self-love is important, let us understand what this term means. It’s just two words but carries a lot of weight.

What is Self-love?

Self-love means you accept yourself for who you are. It means nurturing your mind, body and soul, treating yourself with kindness and embracing every experience that has shaped you. It’s about knowing that you are worthy, beautiful and strong irrespective of what people think of you. The day you accept yourself for who you are, self-love begins.

Benefits of Practicing Self-love

Don’t confuse self-love with thinking no end of yourself. It’s important to consider yourself worthy, however, it shouldn’t become an obsession. Self-love is all about putting your needs and wants first. Besides boosting your overall well-being, self-love has several mental and physical health benefits.

• Mental health Benefits

When you treat yourself better, you’re more likely to feel happy. You tend to find joy in little things. You even tend to let go of relationships and situations that can be emotionally draining, and you then focus your energies on activities that elicit joy. This can be extremely beneficial for your mental health. When you accept yourself and manage your well-being, symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression decrease. Self-love not just improves your relationship with yourself but also with others.

• Physical Health Benefits

In the quest of prioritising yourself and your needs, don’t forget your body needs to move and stretch. Self-love also involves thanking every cell in your body, and for that you need to take out time to hit the gym or go for a brisk walk. When you workout, your endorphins get activated. This improves your thinking and learning abilities, and significantly reduces any feeling of short-term anxiety. As you practice self-love, remember to indulge in regular exercise so that you can improve brain health and manage your weight in the bargain.

Powerful Tips to Embrace and Practice Self-love

In order to cultivate self-love, you don’t have to break the bank or book an expensive resort. It’s all about paying attention and caring for your needs. If you want to appreciate yourself better, here are a few things you can do to start off with:

• Maintain a gratitude journal

There are times when you might feel lost. To prevent this feeling from taking over your life, it’s very important to stay in the present. A fool-proof way to keep yourself grounded is by constantly reminding yourself of what you should be thankful for. You can promote healthy habits by expressing gratitude to the universe each day. We highly recommend that you start a gratitude journal. Towards the end of each day, jot down any one thing that made you happy on that particular day. If not in a notebook, you can even download a gratitude journal app or make a list on your phone. On the days when you’re feeling low, just look up this list and you will realise that at least there is something to be thankful for.

• Meditate

Don’t underestimate the power of meditation. When you find your heart thumping or your mind racing, you should turn to meditation. The best part of meditation is that you can do it anywhere. All you need is a quiet corner. If you don’t know how to meditate on your own, you can even opt for a guided meditation. You’ll find several videos on YouTube ranging from 5 to 60 minutes. When you dedicate little time each day towards meditation, you will become your own wellness advocate and your inflow of self-love will increase.

• Limit your time spent on social media

If you want to practice self-love with all your heart, you need to stop comparing yourself to others, and for that, you need to stop checking your social media feed often. Research suggests that there is a very strong relationship between social media usage and self-esteem. Remember, the grass is always greener on the other side. Stop making comparisons based on what you see on social media. Things are not always how they seem to be. Constantly checking what your friends are doing can create a fear of missing out and can always elevate loneliness. Use social media for only 30 minutes a day and watch your well-being improve.

• Celebrate small wins and victories

Celebrate every win no matter how small it is. Don’t lead your life based on what expectations people have from you. If you get down to pleasing everybody, your anxiety and stress will only increase. Therefore, we recommend you celebrate small victories. It’s important to set realistic expectations for oneself. When you feel accomplished doing a certain thing, you will feel more motivated to move to the next task. Remember, it’s okay if you don’t have it all figured out. Make mistakes and learn from them. Life doesn’t have to be perfect. Your mantra to get through life should be “little drops of water make the mighty ocean”.

• Slow down

The secret to your well-being is giving yourself permission to slow-down. Owing to our fast-paced lives, we’ve completely forgotten how to enjoy special moments. Therefore, self-love starts when you slow down and appreciate the things around you. Practice mindfulness in every aspect of your life. Each time you sit down to eat, make it a point to do so without any distractions. Practice it every day and notice how every cell in your body will thank you. Trust us, it’s a gamechanger. Besides this, it’s also important to give your body rest. When your mind is overly exhausted, go to bed early. Resting is the best way to rejuvenate.

Just like any other relationship, the one you have with yourself also requires nurturing and patience. Practice self-love and you will soon find yourself feeling healthier and happier.